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April 2, 2008

G4: Red Sox 5, Athletics 0

Strange game. Wasted scoring opportunities by the bushel full for both teams through six innings.

Lester (6-2.-3-0-3-3, 94) turned in a nice performance, much improved from last week. There were some rough patches -- he issued his three walks on four pitches each -- but Houdini was helped by three double plays -- in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. Oakland got three hits and three walks off Lester, but got only one runner past first base.

After allowing a two-out single in the seventh, Bryan Corey came in to get the third out. Corey allowed a leadoff single in the 8th, but retired the next three A's, two by strikeout. Manny Delcarmen pitched a perfect 9th: 6-3, F7, 3U.

Harden struggled in the first, allowing a single to Pedroia and walking Yook and Tizzle. But he stopped the rally, fanning Manny and Lowell and getting Drew to ground to first. Once he was gone (5-4-0-4-6, 86), the Sox pounced.

The Sox left the bases loaded in the 6th, but finally scored in the 7th. Yook doubled to left center and Ortiz crushed a home run to right. Five straight singles to start the 8th (four of them to the exact same spot in left field off Lenny DiNardo) made it 4-0. Tek donged in the 9th for the final run.

In the 18 innings in Oakland, the A's scored only one run on seven hits.

The video that pops up on redsox.com shows last night's controversial near-dong--from the A's channel. The A's announcer calls it a homer immediately. Finally the color guys chimes in with 'I think this ball's in play.' Then they go on acting like it looked like a dong.

Edes: Tito says Coco's a fastball hitter so he's in vs. fastball pitcher. I mean, my initial reaction is always gonna be 'how could Jacoby not be in there?' but as it currently stands, we've got a great fourth outfielder who would be a starter on most teams, so it's good to platoon as long as A. when Ellsbury's in, you LEAD HIM OFF, and B. always get the sitting guy into the game late.

Until Jacoby proves he can get on base at at least a .380 rate, I think you have to go with pedroia and youks at the top. A reasonable projection for Jacoby in his first season in the majors would be .360, and his speed is just not enough of a factor to make up for that. What good is stealing second so they can walk Papi?

Of course, the dynamics change a little if Manny puts up 1.000 OPS and Drew puts up .900 in the 5 spot, making walking Papi quite harder. Still, OBP > speed.

On the other hand, I know Tito will do whatever he feels helps the guys the most mentally, and if that means Jacoby bats leadoff, I don't have an issue at all as long as he's somewhere above .350 obp. Below that, he's basically Coco Crisp.

So if Youk or Pedroia hits a ball of the wall should they hold at first? Ellsbury could steal second, third, and home all while Papi's up. I'm not gonna keep a guy out of the leadoff spot because he has too MUCH talent.

- Uncle Joe is doing this game all by himself today. Dave O'Brien is in Yankeeland, and even though there are two other guys (Dale Arnold and studio man John Rish), Joe's doing this game alone.

- One thing that's amazing about the Red Sox is how they have five guys who can and have hit lead-off. Youk, Lyndon, oCoC, Lugo, and Pedroia. Great way to start things up. Maybe Ortiz can put a quick three-spot on the board.

i forgot to tell you that the day after you came up with the wicked lester name, one of the sites i download toons from had a set wicked lester demos from 74 or so. i got them for the hell of it -- maybe i'll up them on an off-day.

"Still, if I had to bet money on one guy on the team to get on base in any given game, I'd probably choose Jacoby."

???

even with his ridiculous hot streak last season, Papi was on base far more.

"If Jacoby's OBP is .350 that's 20 points higher than Coco last year and Coco overall in his career. But it's gonna a lot higher than that, I'd say."

Yes, which is why I said if his OBP is below .350, he's basically Coco- a little more OBP, a little less SLG, a little less defense. Neither are guys you want up top of the order, anyway.

Ellsbury's minor league career is .390 OBP. To suggest he'll vault above that to be the best on this team is not a bet I'd make. Even Youk lost a significant amount of OBP in the majors vs. minors.

Besides, if you accept that Tito is going to alternate Coco and Jacoby, and you surely don't want Coco up top, perhaps it would be better to keep Pedroia up top, where he is proven and comfortable, at least until the choice between Coco and Jacoby is made. By that time, we'll have a slightly better idea of what Jacoby is capable of, and then we can make the switch if necessary. But to suggest Tito's hurting the team by putting two .390 OBP men in front of Papi and Manny is silly.

This is quite out of place now, but I was watching the game. I won't respond any more- the only point I wanted to make was that we need to temper our expectations of Jacoby. Hard to do with the Sox, but he's a rookie. Let him develop, see what happens.

This game is actually turning out to be a great reminder of the vagaries of baseball. Inconsistent offense, getting out of jams, bad baserunning...it's training for not having heart attacks in a mid-August bat-drought!

Dave actually left halfway through the game last night. He did innings 2, 3, and 4, and then Joe did the rest of the game. It's strange because they have more broadcasters than they did last year, and Joe's doing a game solo today.

Sock did you see D'Onofrio's predictions? He also has posted 54 outs predictions. I liked this one 3. The Sox will eventually settle on this lineup: Ellsbury, Pedroia, Ortiz, Ramirez, Youkilis, Lowell, Drew, Varitek, Lugo. Yup, that means you're paying 6-9 a total of $45.5 million this year. So be it.

Amy: I had people scorin' tix left and right on my blog today. Pavilion standing room for June weeknights available. Your school should be out then. Love the view from up there. Got some for myself....